The novel Capricornia at 70

Xavier Herbert won the Miles Franklin for his 1975 Poor Fellow My Country which is the longest Australian book ever written. His first novel Capricornia was published in 1938. Both of these novels are listed as influences on Baz Luhrmann's new movie Australia, and Capricornia has been re-released to coincide with the movie.

Set in the Northern Territory, it's a vast, sardonic novel that spans 50 years and features a gallery of selfish, roguish characters with names like Shillingsworth and Poundamore. Capricornia went against the grain of Lawson-esque bush narratives, railed against the treatment of Aboriginal people and satirised the frontier mythology common in fiction up to that time.

Guests

Elizabeth Webby

Emeritus Professor of Australian Literature, University of Sydney

Frances de Groen

Author of a biography on Xavier Herbert and the co-editor of his collected Letters. Both are published by the University of Queensland Press. She is Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Humanities and Languages, Writing and Society Research Group, University of Western Sydney.